News

Increase In Alleged Abuse Involving Vulnerable Adults

Friday April 5 2013

Figures from a council watchdog meeting earlier this month showed 465 referrals of alleged abuse were made to Barnsley Adult Safeguarding board in 2011/2012 - a rise of 13 per cent compared to 409 referrals in 2010/2011.

Physical abuse accounted for the highest number of referrals in a residential/nursing home followed by neglect, the council added.

The nature of the alleged abuse was not disclosed at the meeting and neither were the names of the care homes involved, because it was deemed "commercially sensitive."

Cllr Charlie Wraith said members were not getting answers about the reports of alleged abuse and questioned why care home names could not be revealed.

"People are coming to us and saying are our care homes safe? But when we get information like that, I am sorry but I think somebody is being a bit lax," he said.

Members were told the board was very successful at ensuring that people who suffered abuse did not come back into the referral system and the board's success rate in terms of dealing with referrals, was favourable compared to other authorities.

The board is made up of representatives from a number of organisations including Barnsley Council, NHS Barnsley and Berneslai Homes.

'Members were told the board was very successful at ensuring that people who suffered abuse did not come back into the referral system and the board's success rate in terms of dealing with referrals, was favourable compared to other authorities.'
Thats ok then, as long as these vulnerable people are only experiencing abuse just the once. What kind of political speak is that 'the boards success rate in terms of dealing with referals, was favourable' !!??....the board needs to be investing a little more time in preventing abuse in the first place....NOT creating systems that counts referals and measures the timescale in which they're dealt with!!!

Still at then the care homes , my 93yr old mother was verbally absurd the cater suspended , but back to work with supervision in 2 weeks. This was disgusting social services& adult safeguarding were involved . The home owner was more concerned she was paying out wages to someone who was not working. But I believe in what goes around comes around Karma

One of the main issues for neglect is that in most nursing homes and care homes don't have enough staff to facilitate. Its not an issue with the staff its with the management not hiring enough people. Ive worked in care for years and just having one extra pair of hands makes a MASSIVE difference.

The root cause is greedy fat cats, making money out of these so called caring homes, by running them as cheaply as possible, they are not interested in the suffering they cause, only in their rewards, PROFIT!!!!! This issue needs to be addressed a.s.a.p.

How DARE the board deem care home owners profits more important than bringing justice to our most vulnerable? The only language care home owners understand is money and profit! by naming them the board could have been on the first step of ensuring the safety of our most vulnerable as the care home owners would have put measures in place to stop it happening again, seen as they don't want see their profits drop by people taking their loved ones somewhere where they will be cared for and receive the services they pay for!!
CCTV in care homes, only visual evidence will prove or disprove!

Barnsley Adult Safeguarding Board haven't looked at "No Secrets" white paper then? Confidentiality should not be confused with secrecy. Principles of confidentiality are designed to safeguard and promote the interests of service users and should not be designed to protect the management interests of an organisation. They should definitely not conflict with the interests of the service user. Where is the principle of being in the public interest to disclose? No transparency, exuding complacency, no accountability and no critical analysis!